The recent vote in Ohio is just one of a string of cases where voters show they mostly support abortion access to some extent (1). Polls show the same. (2) So why do Republicans (specifically Republican politicians, not necessarily Republican voters) keep trying to do something unpopular?

My (perhaps cynical) view of Republican politicians is that they’re the “do anything to win” party. They would take any stance and pull any trick if it would give them a better chance of winning. So why are they so stuck on a losing issue?

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/08/ohio-takeaways-voters-abortion-00110411?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20230809&instance_id=99621&nl=the-morning®i_id=78332928&segment_id=141508&te=1&user_id=2c229a9eb418d267c58bd9e6c665e49d

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/23/us/roe-v-wade-abortion-views.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare T

  • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    It’s a question of which side will see more voters activated by the issue, and go on to vote: remember that winning is largely about generating the momentum for people who already support you to vote at all, not just swaying hearts and minds to vote for you. It’s barely that latter at all.

    So they calculate they can get more church ladies and reactionary males to get fired up about protecting babies and punishing jezebels than the democrats can get people fired up about protecting women’s healthcare. Given how shafted women are across the board, betting on hate may be a winning move.